Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless
by Kount Xero
Summary: My version of a fourth movie, takes place after Unleashed. A figure from Sam's past emerges to learn what happened to him, and starts to trace Brigitte's steps to Ghost and learns of her Reign of Moral Terror and how it ended. Some violence.
1. A Prologue, Somewhere More

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**A Prologue  
(Somewhere More)**

Somewhere in Bailey Downs, under the pouring rain, a car stops by the old greenhouse. The driver brushes aside her red hair with one hand and taps on the wheel with the other. She isn't sure if she is ready for this.

She wonders if there ever is a time that she can be ready for this.

Deciding to just cope, she steps out. The soft soil crunches under her boots, and she feels the weariness of the eight-hour drive roll off of her at the sight of this place.

"I'm home." She says, mostly to herself.

* * *

Somewhere in the north of Ontario, a long ways away from where the silent passenger ends her long journey at the steps of her dead home, a little girl runs across the treeline, feeling every sinew and muscle in her legs scream for her to stop. She can't stop, because the Beast won't stop.

She wants, as she always does, to narrate this event, to relate it to her invisible audience, and she is certain that this narration would appear in a speech bubble. Her audience will have to do with thought boxes instead, she thinks.

Her Reign of Moral Terror has ended before it ever begun.

* * *

Somewhere behind that little girl, close enough but not too close, far enough but never too far, the Beast feels her belly ache with hunger. It's a pulling pain that she feels drives her towards the most basic of impulses, and the lines are so blurred she doesn't distinguish behind them.

The only thing keeping her from pouncing on the prey and devouring it whole is the titillating feeling of the hunt itself.

She despises her prey so. She loves the hunt.


	2. Graveyard

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**1. Graveyard**

Her fingers closed around the yellow tape, and with a swift move, she pulled it loose. This used to be her home, and she had every right to be there. She took her key and unlocked the door. She pushed it open and entered the greenhouse.

It was dark. She guessed that the electricity had been disengaged. Thankfully, she had a flashlight. She turned it on and the beam illuminated withered leaves and dead flowers. There were red cups still on the ground, and the soil under her feet had been disturbed by many, many feet. A party, maybe, but all it had left behind were these small markers. There was nothing but the calm now.

The sound of the rain tapping dissonantly on the roof disturbed the otherwise grave silence of what used to be home.

Used to be. It wasn't home anymore, hadn't been for a while, but still, it's the familiarity of a place once escaped from and later returned to that she felt, led her to feel that something was missing. Something crucial, some central element that used to be there.

She figured it out. The familiar scent of flowers wasn't there. Neither was the presence that she remembered from years ago, a lifetime ago.

His presence. It was gone, and without him, the place felt like a graveyard.

"Sam?" she whispered, feeling it choke her. No answer.


	3. Coffin

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**2. Coffin**

The flashlight in her hand illuminated the darkness only slightly, and her eyes followed that speck of brightness to trace the contents of Sam's coffin. Discarded red cups on the floor, next to broken beer bottles. The scent of booze, still hanging in the air, though thin. The corridors up ahead, the inner sections of the greenhouse.

Withered plants around her and the sound of rain gently tapping on the ceiling.

She set her bag down by the door and went in further. She found the back room. The cot upset and his things, a scale and probably some other measuring implements on his rickety desk. The light scanned skin mags by his bedside and gave her a little smile. Typical guy.

She checked the drawer of the bedside to see if there was anything of importance. Found a leather binder. A diary, perhaps? She opened up a random page.

_May 12th_

_Got the black orchid today. If everything goes right, I will have some quality merchandise off of it – it'll take about a year. That's okay. Nothing happens here anyway._

She closed the notebook and cradled it. It felt warm to her touch, but maybe it was just the thought of keeping a piece of him. His thoughts.

She carried it with her out back. She had to have his thoughts with her as she visited the family crypt.


	4. Crypt

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**3. Crypt**

A small section, further away from the greenhouse and atop a hill, marked by a low fence, signaled the actual crypt. She had walked up that hill so many times, knew its shape, height, incline and how many steps it took from the back door until the entrance. Knew the names on the marble that would wait for her. Repetition and the constant cold, hard fact of her parents' absence served to remind her every time what she would walk into.

Now, standing in front of that waist-high fence and under the rain, she was looking at the silhouettes of three tombstones. Her mother's, her father's, both worn out, outlines of cracked marble with half-erased names that she really should have thought about renewing... and next to them, Sam's.

The pain of his absence, of his non-existence, amplified by thoughts of him and the reality of his once-existence crippled her. She couldn't walk into that crypt. It felt too much like accepting. It felt too much like confirming that he was gone.

"I'm here." She whispered, "Like you always wanted me to be. I came here for you and... you are gone."

The sound of the rain answered her in his stead.


	5. Buried

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**4. Buried**

She returned to the greenhouse, to his room, and sat down on the cot. It still carried his scent, however faint it may have been, and the presence comforted her. Keeping the flashlight in her hand, she started to flip through the pages of the diary.

Buried in that notebook, she hoped, was the answer to why her brother was decaying in a hole six foot deep.

She went through his life, passage by passage and day by day. The mundane details of his narrative, simple and inelegant, reminded her of his bluntness, his lack of deception.

As the entries flowed on by, something started to catch her eye. A name that he kept repeating. His writing still retained its noncommittal quality, but the name came up often. Fitzgerald, at first. Fitzgeralds, Fitz-sisters, _Ginger_ he wrote, _and the younger one, whose name nobody seems to know._

As the entries went on, Sam learned the name, as did she, roaming his thoughts that cold night. The name he seemed to fixate on. The name that nobody knew. Brigitte.

She looked around for a phone. It was under a few mags, on the bedside. She picked it up. The line hadn't been disconnected.

She dialed the police.


	6. Dead

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**5. Dead**

An hour or two trying to convince them and giving them her credentials finally yielded the fruit she had expected. It was strenuous process, but the words 'next of kin' worked her in. She had to worm her way across it.

Brigitte Fitzgerald. This Fitz-sister as Sam called her, knew. She knew why Sam was now dead. The girl, according to the diary, knew everything she wanted to know, and had answers to give. Only, Brigitte was missing.

Where had she gone?

The last known record traced her to a far-off Ontario hospital, the Happier Times Care Center. It wasn't that far away from Bailey Downs. Six hour drive, the officer that gave her the info said.

It was an eight hour drive that had brought her there. Another six would be nothing at all... considering what she would find at the end of her destination.


	7. Funeral

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**6. Funeral**

She went to her car and tossed the diary to the front seat. There'd be time to memorize it, to wear out its pages as Sam's thoughts became her own. There'd be time for them. For now, she had to be prepared. She guessed that it was, after all, the curse that claimed Sam. "The Beast of Bailey Downs" was a nice enough moniker, but all it could do was scare off some suburbanites. The reality of the beast was so much more than any of them realized, she knew.

There was no escaping the Red and the Black once you were in it, and she was in it. Might as well just cope.

She opened the trunk and checked her supply bag. Signal flares, check. Tranquilizer gun and rifle, check. Hatchet, check. Hunting knife, check. High-grade rope, check. The combined extracts of _aconitum noveboracense_ and _aconitum anthora,_ distributed evenly to 10cc syringes, five for both the isolated extracts and the compound, check. Dried plants of the same kind, proof 40 alcohol, portable heater and stainless steel pot, check. Container of leeches, check.

The small, cylindrical, stainless steel container, impact-resistant, containing two vials of _aconitum uncinatum _extract... check.

Gun. In her belt. .50 Desert Eagle. Two spare clips. Yes, her plan B was ready, as well.

She closed the trunk and got to the wheel. Next stop: Happier Times Care Center.


	8. Predator

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**7. Predator**

Ghost couldn't quite remember a time when this simple action of moving her legs in a quick succession of steps wasn't her everything. Running was all she had left and she was running with all she had. Her eyes scanned the horizon. The last fading hues of dark blue were about to disappear and if she didn't make it to the highway, or at the very least to somewhere where she could hide herself, somewhere with walls, she knew that just running wouldn't be enough.

In her feverish little mind, one thought was screaming at her, constantly.

It wasn't supposed to be like this!

Her Reign of Terror –of Moral Terror- wasn't supposed to have ended before it had even begun! Her greatest victory, the conquering of Burnt Barbara with her Brigittewolf wasn't supposed to have preceded the said wolf deciding to take a bite out of her!

Ghost didn't know how far she had run or for how long, but she knew that she couldn't keep this up indefinitely. In the thick of the trees, she could hear the monster, her once-faithful Brigittewolf, darting forward, in pursuit.

Thinking about the jaws that had torn Burnt Barbara to shreds with ease, Ghost ran through the trees, pushing herself for one last, desperate stretch.


	9. Prey

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**8. The Prey**

She recognized a prey when she saw one, and the little blonde girl running desperately through the trees definitely was the prey. She could tell by the scent of raw adrenaline in the air, tearing right through the cold like a great knife, driving her on, drawing her nearer.

The smell of fear, thick and mobile. Marking her. Marking the prey.


	10. Gas

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**9. Gas**

One thought tore through all of the others when Ghost saw that familiar gas station – she had been there twice on that fateful night and many times after that. The Sanctuary. The Place of Respite, in which they could be away from their troubles and make moves to outsmart monsters.

Considering that she had one on her tail right then, this was exactly what she needed.

Ghost heard a hungry growl and knew that she needed to run for that one last time. Just one more time, she told herself, and she'd be free of the clutches of the betrayer-beast. The Brigittewolf wasn't a saving grace after all, she was a villain.

Ghost moved onto the highway and started to run, and with each step that she grew closer to the gas station she relaxed ! She was saved! No monsters could dwell in the Palace of Rest. No monsters at all.

Beneath her frantic thoughts, some part of her thought: there is only one way. One ultimate sanctuary that kept the beast out once. He circled and circled and huffed and puffed, but couldn't get in. He couldn't get into the light parts. The shadows, the crematorium, they were beastly places, dark places for creatures of the night to dwell in.

The hospital was her best bet, but she couldn't run there. She needed a car. The Palace of Rest would have cars. It was a car hospital, where wounded and sick cars came to get better by benevolent doctors who tore out their guts and played with them using wrenches.

So Ghost ran. She ran towards the gas station.


	11. Flammable

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**10. Flammable**

Flames, Ghost thought as she cleared the final stretch and got to the boundaries of the Palace of Rest. Flames, if only I could make fire. If only I could burn Brigittewolf like I burned Barbara, if only I had gas to light, in a container.

The gas pumps, rusty and still, hung a little ways from where she was standing. Gas pumps had gas, and she always had a lighter on her, because fire was the ultimate weapon against the beasts. Fire consumed and fire burned and fire was nice, and she needed fire now. Fire would banish or vanquish the Brigittewolf, whichever came first.

Ghost took the pump and rose to her tip-toes to be able to level herself. She lifted from her shoulder, like Burnt Barbara had taught her to, and cradled the pump. It was a lunk of metal, heavy and quite immovable by her standards. She rose a leg and put the pump on her lap to take out the lighter.

The Brigittewolf reared her head out from the line of trees up ahead. Ghost saw the movement, but refused to focus on it. She had the lighter in her hand. With her thumb, she flicked the cap open and...

"Kid, what are you doing there!"

Ghost looked up. A man wearing jeans, and a black, fur-lined bomber jacket. The owner of the station, maybe?

No. The King of the Palace of Rest.

"Is that a lighter in your hand..?"

The wolf's cry came and Ghost knew that she was coming.


	12. Lighter

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**11. Lighter**

Ghost lit the lighter, which prompted the man to lunge at her. His movement coincided with the Brigittewolf's pounce, and the monster missed him by inches. The King and she rolled towards the pumps, and the lighter, the only piece of hope they had slipped from her fingers. She saw it bounce once on the pavement, twice on the pavement and then settle a few feet away from her... a continent, galaxy away from her.

"The fuck is that thing!" the uninformed King said, and Ghost just kicked him to get to the lighter. She slithered out of his grip and scampered on the concrete, on all fours, just like the monster, and thought, oh Lord, they made a beast out of me.

She took the lighter and turned. Brigittewolf was staring the Uninformed King down, her unwavering, feral gaze measuring him up. He still had the pump in his hand, the ultimate weapon, but it was one lighter short of a flamethrower.

She had the lighter.

Ghost saw the monster shift position, balance herself on her hind legs, bend her spine. Ghost crossed the small distance between her and the uninformed King, held out his arm and lit the lighter.

"Kid, you can't-"

The King, uninformed as he was, didn't know of her intent. She held the King's hand, showing him the ropes, and forged the Ultimate Weapon.


	13. Fire

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**12. Fire**

It was one of her baser instincts, the aversion to fire. It wasn't anything mysterious or thought-provoking, it was simply that the air around the glowing yellow and red thing would be super-heated, and she would have to avoid it. And now, the prey, well, both the bigger prey and the smaller prey, the more attractive prey and simply dinner prey, had it.

She tensed, the slight amount of fur on her back stood on end, and started to measure the prey. She was hungry, and one way or another, she would have her prey.


	14. Flamethrower

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**13. Flamethrower**

A few quick spurts of gas and the flamethrower had the desired effect of making the wolf shirk and step back a little.

"Shit!" the King said, "What the fuck is that thing?"

"Keep it away!" Ghost shrieked, "If it gets close, we're both dead!"

"Kid, I can't use too much of this, it'll light this whole place up!"

"Do you have a car?" Ghost asked.

Brigittewolf was still there. She wouldn't be swayed. The King's Ultimate Weapon was but a stop-gap measure.

"'course I got a car! But it's on the other side of the station, we'll never make it with this thing! Shit, why isn't it scared?"

Another river of flame shot towards the wolf. The fire was nice, it was keeping the Beast at bay. The King was using the gas sparingly. It was a good sign. He was smarting up.

"We need to go!" Ghost said, pulling on his coat, "We need to go, now! We'll be safe at the Hospital!"

Something inside of her was telling her that she never should've left the hospital, that she had been safe there. That maybe, Brigitte may have had a chance there and maybe, just maybe, all might have been alright, had they never left.

But they had, and the night outside of the place of healing was full of dangers untold.

The Brigittewolf stopped its pacing. Focused. In the silence of its attention, Ghost saw the move. It was getting ready to attack, and it would maneuver around the Ultimate Weapon's flames.

"It's coming!" she shrieked.

"Fuck this!"

The Uninformed King, foolish, too foolish, pulled on the gas pump. Ghost pushed him away and broke in a run, away from the Uninformed King and his Ultimate Weapon, knowing what would come next.

She heard the roar of the monster mixing with the King's anguished cries right before the sound of the explosion deafened her.


	15. Ignition

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**14. Ignition**

First, the sound so loud that it left behind only a droning, thin note came. Then, the shockwave that sent her, limbs flailing, across the highway, and Ghost felt something crack right above her stomach.

The pavement rose, she bounced and it receded, right before rising once again and finally claiming her. She felt the snow by her head, and her hair was soaking in it. The sound of debris falling and the wreck settling gradually descended into a low rustle. The sound of the remaining fires, smoldering the ruins.

And then came the low, guttural growl of the Wolf, reverberating in the beast's throat. Ghost looked up.

The dancing shadows made by the fires drew on the face of pure malice that was now looking at her. The wolf, its layer of fur reminiscent of Brigitte's hair, was hovering over the helpless victim, looking. Ghost felt her body tense up. She couldn't move. Fear had paralyzed her every instinct, suppressed her will to escape and had choked her breath. The knot in her throat wouldn't move.

There she was, the sacrificial lamb, victimized as she ever should have been, before the Beast. The Brigittewolf, vengeful, ungrateful. Ungrateful.

The moment lingered, tense, as if being wound up even tighter, to snapping point.

Then Brigittewolf turned and ran off into the treeline, leaving Ghost behind to catch her breath.


	16. Ignition, II

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**15. Ignition, II**

She pulled the car to the curb and pulled the keys out of the ignition. The key ring was in her palm and she was squeezing her fist tighter and tighter and tighter each passing second.

The pain in her chest, sharp, pulling at her flesh and dragging along all her senses shook her.

She writhed in the grip of it, her body aching and her breath stuck in her throat, her voice stuffed into her mouth like a gag. Some part of her protested, another part reveled in it, and another part was sick of all of this. She leaned forward, buckled over by the pain moving down and overtaking her stomach, and pressed her forehead against the wheel.

The pure silver piercings on both her eyebrows, three each, moved slightly and sent a small shiver of an ache. She snarled and the pure silver adornments around her lips tensed in their cavities.

Just a little more. Please. A little further.

She breathed in deep and gradually decreased her pulse. The pain withdrew, the world became clear again and the road returned. She sat there, panting, feeling cold sweat run down her spine. She turned to the passenger seat, where Sam's journal was sitting. It was almost as good as if he himself was there. Almost.

No time to dwell. She was already in hour three. Just a little more, now. A little further.


	17. Nomads

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**16. Nomads**

Ghost crossed her arms and tried to keep herself warm. She was on the side of the road, besides the Palace of Rest that the Beast had had the Uninformed King raze to the ground in a moment of foolish despair. She had checked to see if the car he had talked about was intact. It wasn't. The flames that had consumed the Ultimate Weapon had consumed it as well.

So there she was, on the side of the curb, one hand extended in a vain attempt to hitch-hike. But she wasn't just holding her hand out to do so, she was calling the stray cars and the nomads in, saying, in the cosmic scheme of things, I'm stranded out here, help me. Help.

She waited and she waited, but the nomads didn't seem to be around. Was her beacon not strong enough? Was her call not loud enough for them to hear?

It was all the fault of the Beast. All of it! The Ungrateful, in their...

Headlights ahead. Going in the direction she wished to, in the direction of Sanctuary. Ghost started to scream, waving her arms around, hoping to capture the driver's attention. The Nomad had to have seen her, he had to have noticed.

And he had! The car slowed down, and she felt how cold it was once more. Shivering, she looked into the driver's seat. It was a woman, her hair shorter than Alice's and her face thinner than Brigitte's when she used to be human, looked at her and asked:

"Kid, you alright?"

"I'm freezing and I'm lost."

"Where are you going?"

"Happier Times Care Center."

"Where is that?"

"That way." She pointed down the road.

"Hop on in."

Ghost smiled. It worked, she thought, my beacon is strong. I am strong. I will make it.

She opened the door and before she came in, she felt the shadows moving in between the trees. She looked at the pitch black of the forest and saw nothing, but felt the Beast there, playfully watching her.

She got in and closed the door.


	18. Road

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**17. Road**

The headlights illuminated the road, which seemed to be an unending stretch of asphalt that had the occasional slight turn. The path seemed to go on forever, and part of her wandered if she was moving at all. It was the same feeling she often got in long trips, that maybe she was simply re-conquering the same circular stretch of existence and it was arranged so that it would seem like she was covering any distance.

The night-road thoughts clouded her.

Part of her was still a week ago, when she had gotten the call. She had been studying Northern Blue Wolfsbane and how it might have been growing around what once was Fort Bailey. She had picked up the phone, cigarette in mouth, and had heard a policeman recite in perfect monotone that Sam had been killed by an animal. That they hadn't wanted to alert her until after the case had been finalized.

Animal. What a nice way of putting it, she thought. She had known, even then, that it hadn't been any animal that anyone had ever seen. She knew.

Nobody escaped the curse.

* * *

The night-road vision let Ghost reel herself in and get lost in the happy, fictionalized version of the world outside. She saw the trees as static, but with action lines drawn across them – and somebody had used some very good shadowing on this particular panel, because the world right outside the passenger seat window looked very, very real.

There was no Beast. The feeling of Brigittewolf's presence, her malleable focus, was gone. She was free.

_No, you're not,_ a part of her said, _you are not free. You can't be free. Nobody escapes the curse._

But this isn't a curse, she wanted to say, it's just a mistake. I make mistakes sometimes. Doesn't mean I can't correct them.

_This one_, the little voice in her head, the voice she always thought was Barbara's told her, _you just can't make right. She's going to kill you for it._

Ghost looked outside and as the configuration of trees, rocks and roadside debris started to grow familiar, she thought that whoever was painting this world, was using colors too dark for her taste.


	19. Trail

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**18. Trail**

The prey had left a trail. It mingled with the disgusting, tongue-fucking smell of engine oil and the burnt scent of rubber on asphalt, but the prey's scent was distinguishable. She didn't have enough to describe herself, but if she could, she would say that she was happy.

The hunt was still on. This pleased her. It made her stomach growl, eager to devour more, but the just dinner prey back at the fire place would do for a while.

She started to follow the trail, knowing that no matter what, she would find the prey.

It'd be feeding time again soon.


	20. Hospital

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**19. Hospital**

She pulled up in front of the hospital and turned the engine off. She left the keys in the ignition, for whatever.

The place was close to what she pictured a sanitarium would be like: the central building resembled a two-story house, complete with the requisite pointy roof and the single, central window up there in the attic... the rest of the building expanded from there, forming what she guessed were other wings.

Now, coated in snow that was slowly turning into that brown sludge, it rested. Well, Happier Times Care Center had certainly seen happier times, she could see that. Wear and tear on the exterior. Dust and filth on windows. The general color of it, decaying white amidst the bare tree branches that surrounded it.

She went through the double doors and was greeted with the faint scent of linoleum on top of antiseptics. A hallway stretched out in front of her, which ended in three offices; to both her sides, hallways went, but the one on the right had a **UNDER CONSTRUCTION. NO ACCESS.** sign hanging.

She took the only available path and quickly found the reception booth. A nurse, looking bored and fiddling with a crossword puzzle sat there. She tapped on the glass.

"Hello, I was wondering if you could help me. I wanted to ask about a patient of yours?"

"Name?"

"Brigitte Fitzgerald."

"Are you family?"

"No."

"Then I can't-"

"She's related to the death of my brother." She said, "I'm working with the OPP North East. Reportedly, she's the last to see him, and this is where she was recorded last."

"Don't you need a badge for that?"

"I can have you speak to the commissioner, if you'd like? I'm sure Commissioner Rowlands would like nothing better than to-"

"You don't gotta. Wait."

The nurse picked up the phone and called what she guessed to be an office down the hall.

"Our superintendent will be with you." The nurse said and then she returned to her crossword puzzle.

She turned around to take a good look at the surroundings, which was when what she thought was a blonde girl ducked behind a door.


	21. Condition

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**20. Condition**

Ghost ducked behind the door and pressed her back to the wall. Her heart was pounding in her chest. No. Not this. Not this again.

Her looping thought returned and screamed: it wasn't supposed to be like this!

She had returned to the Sanctuary, where the Beast dare not tread, only to be followed there by the curse that had made the Beast! Was there no escaping this? Why did she have to be the prey, again?

But wait. Maybe this new arrival, this hunter, could do something. Ghost had seen the like. Cargo pants, pockets down the side, functional and durable. Boots, steel toes most probably. Leather coat. Long-sleeved t-shirt inside it.

Gun in its holster, under her right arm. Left-handed.

Now that she thought about it, the curious hunter looked like she was prepared to handle someone... or something. Maybe the hunter knew about the Beast, or at least, suspected something. This would mean that the hunter could help her.

Ghost smiled. Maybe there still was a way out of this.


	22. Patients

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**21. Patients**

Ten minutes passed. Nobody yet.

A few of the patients passed by the reception. One of them blatantly ogled her, looked her up, down, side to side and in a circle, before cupping one hand over her mouth and whispering something to her friend, who reacted with amusement and aversion combined.

She didn't know what they were talking about, and didn't really care.

"Sorry for the wait, I was in the crematorium."

The superintendent was an old man who came wearing round-rimmed glasses and a lab coat. He had a short boxed beard and a bald head, giving her the impression of the jolly pediatrician... or a shrink, maybe.

He smiled rather apologetically while rubbing his glasses onto his now-stained white coat.

"Hello, I'm Matthew Murphy."

She took his hand. Matthew Murphy. Why was that name so familiar?

"Ginger." She said, "You're the superintendent?"

"Yes, yes. I took over the job a month and a half ago as the replacement of Alice... shame about that girl. I always said she'd get lost among the lost."

She could only shake her head politely at that.

"What is this about?"

"A patient of yours. Brigitte Fitzgerald."

"Hoho. You learn that name very quickly when you're on staff. Kind of a strange story."

"I'm listening."

"Mind if we step into my office?"

"Sure."

They started to walk, side by side, down the corridor. She supposed that this was where his office would be. They were flanked on both sides by the patients, some of them still, some of them mobile, but all of them, unmistakably, focused on her.

She knew what they were looking at and what they were looking at was the reason why she couldn't look into mirrors anymore.

* * *

_Author's Note: Before anyone starts crying about her name, take notice that the name Ginger isn't used anywhere in the narrative itself, just in dialogue._


	23. Report

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**23. Report**

Murphy's office was neatly organized. The left wall was basically two bookshelves full of books about addiction, substance abuse and psychiatry. The other side of the room had the desk, diagonally placed in between two walls. Next to the desk were two file cabinets, one of which Doctor Murphy was digging through.

Familiar pain in her stomach, pulling. Pulling with all its strength, pulling her every muscle into itself. Black hole agony.

Not now. Not now. A little longer. Just a little longer.

"Ah, there it is."

He held out a manila folder, which didn't make sense at all to her. She took a seat and patiently waited.

"To our knowledge, Brigitte has no next of kin." Murphy said, "Her mother is in prison, her father and sister are missing... so I am curious as to-"

"Brigitte Fitzgerald has something to do with my brother's death. Nobody is saying that she killed him, in fact, a good deal of evidence points towards her making every effort to save him... but I don't know what happened. Nobody does. Nobody but her."

"And you want to know."

"Naturally."

Pulling pain. Fuck. She checked the clock. Five hours, fifty-five minutes. A little longer, damn it, five minutes isn't going to kill you.

"Well, Brigitte Fitzgerald was admitted to this facility for a period of two weeks. She had an extremely atypical addiction."

"What was she pushing?"

"Extract of a perennial flower called monkshood... uhh, yes, _aconitum napellus_ if you want to get technical."

Inside her head, something clicked. Monkshood. There were many strains, some more effective than others, yellow monkshood being a much more effective one. _Aconitum napellus, _or aconite, or monksblood, was an effective dilatory measure. But that was it. It was no cure.

The pulling pain in her stomach gave her entire body a tug and she remembered that there _was _no cure.

"What happened to her?"

"Ah, to that extent, you might wanna talk to Ghost. She's a patient here. See, five disappeared with Brigitte, but only one of them returned. The last thing Alice did before leaving the facility, really, was noting somewhere where she was going, and it was Ghost's grandmother's house."

"Could you introduce us?"

"Certainly."

Pain, pulling, urgent, needing...

"Actually, mind if I use the bathroom first?" she asked, "It's been a long ride."

Pain. Pain. Pain.


	24. Medicine

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**23. Medicine**

She entered the stall and shut the door. The latch was broken, so all she could do was hope not to be caught with a damn syringe in her arm. She took off her belt and looped it around her arm. Pulled it with her teeth to make sure she was squeezing it tightly enough.

Using two fingers, she tapped on the vein a few times. Bless the healing, it wasn't blocked or anything. Had she been a junkie, she thought, she'd have her veins slowly fall apart.

But she wasn't a junkie. She was something much worse.

She fished out the syringe. Tapped it and tested the needle. All was well. She trapped the belt in between her teeth and plunged the needle in. She withdrew the plunger to draw in a bit of blood and then, bracing herself, pushed it down.

The yellow monkshood extract rushed through her veins, and she felt its course inside her body – it was as if a halfway solid object was being pushed into her veins, taking their shape as it went.

Beat of her heart, once and TWICE and it sent the feeling coursing through her entire body, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

She bit down hard, knowing that the pain would pass, knowing that it was only temporary... knowing that it was nothing... nothing at all...


	25. Cavity

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**24. Cavity**

She circled the building, hiding herself in the treeline for the day; she was trying to see if the cavity she remembered was still there. From there, she could enter, and if she could enter, she could find her prey.

There, in the wall. The cavity that the one had used. The cavity she would use, if she could stand his stench.

The rumbling in her belly reminded her why she had to linger there and why she had to endure.


	26. Consultation

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**25. Consultation**

Ghost heard the doors open and lifted her head from her newest character, halfway constructed. It was the Guardian and the Hunter. The Hunter, in her righteous crusade, would enlist her help, Ghost knew. She stood up from the bed and struck her most innocent look – the gaze of an innocent would stir even the cruelest of hunters and most eager of survivors, and this one would be no different.

"This is Ghost," The Guardian said, briefly playing with his glasses.

"Mind if I talk to her in private?" the Hunter demanded.

"Just know – Ghost does not have a very clear distinction between reality and fiction. Keep that in mind."

"Duly noted."

The Hunter waited for the Guardian to step out and close the door. Ghost smiled, yes, this was what she wanted, to get the Guardian alone, so that the Innocent could enlist her help.

"Hello, Ghost, my name is Ginger."

Ginger? The namesake of Brigittewolf's sister! Why would she be carrying that?

"Her name was not her own, but still she carried it with her." Ghost said, "For hunters had no names."

"I see."

She felt that her diagnosis was clear with regards to Ghost: she knew everything. Everything that she wanted to know, this little girl knew.

"What happened with Brigitte?"

"She howled and she growled, until the Innocent just ran out." Ghost said, "She turned into a wolf."

"Bad curse to have."

"Very bad."

Ghost leaned in and asked:

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Sure."

"_She's after me."_

She could hardly keep a smile out of her lips. Good.

"Can you help me find her?"

"Why do you want to find her?"

"To help her."

"No."

"To help me."

"Why do you need help?"

"I have a bad curse of my own."

Ghost could smile, but it would ruin her chances. She knew what to do now, and it was very, very simple.

"One condition." She said, "You have to get me out of here."

She grinned widely, satisfied. Ghost would be easy.

"Sure. Let's go."


	27. Contamination

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**26. Contamination**

She grabbed Ghost by the wrist and dragged her along. She walked onto the hallway and in front of the watchful eyes of the wallflowers and a few orderlies, kept a steady pace. A few of the patients took note of their stride, but none reacted, and she felt content in knowing that she could probably take Ghost out easily.

That was when Doctor Murphy got out of a room on the right and saw them.

"Well, hello!" Doc Murphy said. She rolled her eyes – this wasn't going to be pleasant. "I see that you've made friends, did you, Ghost?"

Ghost looked up to him, with a smile, "Yes, and now we're going for a walk."

"A walk?" Murphy rose an eyebrow, "In this cold..?"

She considered the options she had. She could try to sweet-talk her way out of this, but, let's face it, it would fail spectacularly. She could demand they release Ghost in her custody, but she wasn't family, and even if she was, the whole process would take too long.

Only other option. Direct getaway.

"We're going." She said, "I'm taking her. I'll bring her back."

"I'm afraid that's not possible," Murphy said, without a hint of worry in his voice, "You're not family. You can't."

"Get out of my way, Doctor."

"Don't make this-" Doc Murphy started, but, as she predicted, a gun in his face stopped him short. She cocked the hammer back.

"I said, I'm taking her."

"Security!" Murphy shouted, "_Security!"_

"Time to run, Ghost!" she said.

Using the gun's handle, she clocked Murphy one and broke in a run amidst the cheers of the patients behind her, and dragged Ghost alongside.


	28. Outbreak

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**27. Outbreak**

She knew where she was going – it was just two hallways away, the exit, her car, and her way out of there. Ghost was doing a good job keeping up with her pace... well, if the brat ever fell down, she could drag her on the ground if that was what was necessary, but there was no way she was leaving her only connection to Brigitte Fitzgerald in this hospital.

"Hey, _stop!"_

"Stop right there! _Stop her!_"

Orderlies shouted as she ran past the reception and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the receptionist scramble for something in front of her.

She pushed the door open, and no sooner had the door left the frame that the lock engaged with a loud clack. She grinned and pushed on. Ghost was starting to lose track of the rhythm, she was about to fall – fuck it. Ghost didn't matter.

They cleared the hallway and she kicked the door open. They rushed down the steps and towards the car. She holstered her gun and got in. Ghost followed suit.

She turned the ignition, spun the car around and floored it. The car shot forward towards the highway with Ghost's excited shriek, leaving a trail of snow behind.


	29. Transitional

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**28. Transitional**

Once they were on the road, she decided to probe Ghost.

"So, where did you go with Brigitte when you escaped last time?"

"Barbara's home. I had nowhere else to go."

"I see."

But that wasn't it, and she could tell. Ghost's leap from just a friendly talk to a discussion of the Curse to asking her to spring her free had been a little too hasty.

"So what did you do last time?" she asked, checking the rear view mirror. Nothing. She rolled the window down to sniff the air, perchance to catch something.

"Sleepover. My first proper sleepover."

The razor-sharp air of the Ontario cold and the damp, soft smell of snow filled her nostrils, but nothing else.

"Your first? Why?"

"She was alone in her castle, no friends and no family to speak of, but many enemies with whom to contend."

She didn't even pretend to have understood. What Doc Murphy had said was an understatement, clearly. Ghost didn't seem to have _any _boundary between reality and fiction.

For half an hour or so, the hum of the engine was the only sound in the car. She periodically rolled the window down to smell the air. Nothing yet.

"So, what do you want to do with this Monster?" Ghost asked.

"I told you, I want to help her."

"How?"

"I have a cure."

"But her cure wasn't a cure."

"Her cure was the wrong kind. If she knew what I know, she could have saved herself..."

"What's your plan? I mean, in the comics and everything, the hero always has a plan, and it works."

"My plan is, you'll help me find Barbara's home. If she's after you, she'll find us there, and once she does, well... we'll see."

"This is going to be so much fun!" Ghost said, smiling widely.

Holding onto the wheel, she shivered at the sight.


	30. Follower

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**29. Follower**

The prey was moving again, and all she could do was slowly follow the trail left by that metal mount the prey had. Gasoline and rubber. It was easy to follow, the combination of synthetic smells in the snow, but she couldn't expose herself during the day.

The night was her playground, it was where she could move freely... and every day ended in the night.


	31. House

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**30. House**

Another half hour of Ghost's frantic tales of murder, mayhem and mythic beasts mixing with the smell of snow, the steady hum of the engine and the occasional direction to turn here or somewhere near brought them to the cabin in the woods.

She pulled up front and turned off the engine. She got off to observe her surroundings. Between the shed, the garage and the house, there wasn't anything to shield herself from the Beast, if indeed this psychotic girl was telling her the truth about that. It was all open space, and only a moron would take a lycanthrope head-on in an arena like this.

"Come on, it's unlocked!" Ghost called. She went up to her and went into the house.

The smell of blood and rotting flesh hit her before she could brace herself, and she found herself on her knees, trying desperately to breathe. The scent was thick, rich and musky, moist with decay and it was choking her... she didn't know whether to be repulsed by or attracted to it - the pain in her gut was pulling her on while her mind was screaming protests.

She cupped one hand over her mouth and nose, and it dampened the smell enough for her to breathe.

"What... is that smell..?"

Ghost peeked her head out from the corner of the hall and said, with a smile,

"Oh, that's just Barbara. I didn't have time last time to clean her up, so she's still here. Speaking of, can you give me a hand with her?"

She gritted her teeth. Just a little longer, she told herself, just a bit longer and you'll get there.

She went to help Ghost with her grandmother's corpse.


	32. Home

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**31. Home**

The mangled corpse, or the hollowed out chest cavity with entrails scattered around it, was smack in the middle of the living room, lying in the disorganized debris of all the small trinkets that make a house a home. She observed that all the pieces of what she guessed once were decorative knick-knacks were scattered all around without any discernible pattern.

She looked left, and in the entrance, a banner, half torn, was hanging from one side. **WELCOME HOME BARBA**.

Christ. She looked at Barbara. Arms up, body torn from neck to crotch, ribs broken, corpse in pieces. She doubted that the poor woman had even had anything close to an even chance.

The stench of it was overwhelming. She didn't know how long this body was lying there to dry, but it was difficult just standing there.

Hearing Ghost's footsteps return from the kitchen, she asked, "What happened..?"

"My Reign of Moral Terror." Ghost said as she laid out two large garbage bags, "My faithful companion deceived me; she promised me her strength and gave me just her rage."

She rose an eyebrow. More narrative, but one thing was starting to become clear - Ghost had planned to use the beast for something.

"What would your companion use her strength for?" she asked.

"To get rid of my many enemies."

"Like Barbara?"

Ghost didn't say anything. She simply went to the kitchen and returned with more garbage bags.


	33. Interred

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**32. Interred**

Ghost watched the Hunter work with incredible precision and speed. The Hunter bound Burnt Barbara in her shroud of garbage bags, unapologetic in this desecration, and used the rope Ghost provided to her to tie the pieces of them together, so that pieces of Barbara wouldn't leak out.

Then, the Hunter said that they would lay this corpse out into the woods, where it'd attract the Beast. That was a good idea, Ghost had to admit, and she was satisfied. The Hunter would, just like she had predicted, help her with the betrayal of her Faithful Companion.

They didn't go that far from the house, the Hunter explained that they couldn't. They were just a little ways away from the shed. The Hunter dropped the corpse and started to fumble with something.

Why was she stopping?

Ghost objected, they had to go farther. This was too close, the Brigittewolf would-

The Hunter turned, came at her and grabbed her. Ghost could manage only a small yelp before the Hunter pressed a sweet-smelling cloth against her nose and mouth, and Ghost's consciousness slipped away.


	34. Necessities

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**33. Necessities**

She made sure that Ghost was out cold. She was. Good. She checked her watch. It wasn't too late, it was just three in the afternoon. She had ample time to gather up the necessities of her little trap and then move accordingly.

She picked Ghost up and got back to the front yard of the house. After retrieving some rope from the trunk of her car, she hogtied Ghost and made sure that the knots were secure. She couldn't have the little psycho run out on her.

Not a clear grasp of reality, her ass – Ghost fucking _knew._ There was a difference between not knowing and not accepting. Even if that wasn't the case, Ghost had clearly said the lycanthrope was after her, which made her a perfect candidate for live bait.

Of course, she'd let the wolf tear her to fucking shreds, but that was beside the point.

She rummaged through her trunk and started to mark out the necessities. Tranquillizer rifle, two spare clips, more rope, the chemicals she'd need, more rope and the will to do it – bare necessities. If she had them, she could start thinking about having the luxury of safety.


	35. Preparation

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**34. Preparation**

The downside of Barbara's cabin was that, barring the interior of the house, where it was even less possible, there wasn't any way of setting this up so that she could predict the lycanthrope's movements, or even restrict them. Fuck it, she thought, safety was overrated at this point.

But she did have some place to store the beast while, if she was successful, the cure took effect. It usually took two to three days, and the basement seemed the best of limited options. It wasn't the best room there was in the house, but from Ghost's thin narrative, she had deduced that the girl had kept the beast _somewhere_ before her Reign of Moral Terror, and this was it.

With that decided, she took Ghost and checked with her weight to see if the trees in front of the cabin could hold her. If she tied the supporting strands to the tree trunks instead of branches, they could, so she did. She strung Ghost up, taking great care not to put her upside down. She needed to be alive for the lycanthrope to go for her. Not that it wouldn't go for her if she was dead, but this was a surer way.

Then, she retrieved her weapons. She tucked two needles each of yellow and northern blue into her jacket pockets, used the empty holster for the tranq gun and took the tranq rifle as her main weapon. She stabbed her hatchet onto the porch. If worst comes to worst.

She didn't expect things come to that.

She checked her watch. Five past four. Still a ways until sundown, still a ways until the cabin became, effectively, the beast's territory.

She retrieved a syringe of yellow monkshood and an elastic band from her bag and set it on the porch. She sat down next to it and started to watch the pathways, hands on the rifle.


	36. PreTrap

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**35. Pre-Trap**

A half hour passed and she watched the possible pathways of the lycanthrope, anticipating its appearance and playing out scenarios in her head. From the most likely to the least likely, she encountered the beast time and again, and found that she couldn't lose.

The pre-hunt contemplation was obligatory at this point, she figured, as she had done this every time. It wasn't a sense of foreboding or her future predictions, it was simply the mood of the threshold that compelled her, and she didn't try to fight it. This was natural, as natural as the Fitzgerald girl now wasn't. This wasn't her first and, she felt more profoundly, that this would probably be her last. No, her first, she would never forget. She could still feel the wound ache, even though the bad curse had healed it, completely, years ago. It wasn't phantom pain, it was simply the memory of that tipping point that had shaped her life up until this point.

The wolf that had come out of nowhere. She remembered snapshots, vivid and clear. Breaking glass and how the glass shards seem to rain sideways. Sam's scream. Her father's arterial blood, gushing out of the punctured vein like a geyser, painting her mother red. Her mother's shrieks and how they were silenced by a claw to the throat and turned by the blow into gurgling sounds.

Why the wolf had left them be, her after a bite and in the case of Sam, after merely a graze, she would never understand. Even now, sitting on the porch of Barbara's cabin, waiting for the latest victim and that, in order to further victimize her, she didn't know. All she knew was that she had to leave Sam with the best remedy she could think of, pure silver, and search for a cure on her own. Her search had brought here to the here and the now.


	37. Trap, Open

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**36. Trap (Open)**

Ghost stirred then, the chloroform was wearing off slowly. She woke to being suspended in the air, in between the trees. Cold wind in her face and blood circulation all askew, trying to navigate between limbs caught up in the ropes.

"Hey!" she called out, "Hey!"

The Hunter's voice answered her.

"Good evening, Ghost."

"Why am I up here?"

The Hunter sighed. Why was the Hunter sighing? That wasn't a good sign...

"I laid a trap for the wolf. You're the bait."

"Oh."

That was okay. The Hunter needed a lure to attract the Brigittewolf, after all.

"That's okay. I was bait before. I didn't mean to be, but I was." Ghost said, "What's your plan?"

The Hunter smiled.

"The hero always has a plan, yes. My plan is: the wolf comes. The wolf eats you. I stand back and enjoy the sound of nature."

Ghost laughed nervously.

"Very funny, Ginger..." she said, "You almost scared me."

"Don't call me that." The Hunter said, "And, I think you should be scared. The adrenaline can draw the beast right to you."

"You're..." Ghost's eyes widened as the understanding of what was about to happen tore into her and chilled her heart, "...you're really going to feed me to it! Ginger, why..."

"Your narrative isn't as thick as it should be. I know you planned to use Brigitte Fitzgerald after she'd transformed completely, which means, you knew her... which means," she felt her teeth grinding against one another as she spoke, "you were there when she transformed. Probably fed the others who escaped with you the first time around to it, too."

"That's not true!" Ghost squealed, "That's not true! I didn't feed them to anyone!"

"Nice try. But no."

"I swear it! I swear it on Barbara's grave!"

Ghost started to struggle, her fear feeding her limbs strength and her mind clarity of purpose. She wriggled against her bindings, teeth clenched and trying desperately to get any part of her loose, but the ropes seem to be made of iron.

"Don't bother." The Hunter said, "I wouldn't string you all the way up there if there was a way for you to get loose. This is the end of the line for you, Ghost."

A growl cued her to retreat to the porch and bring the rifle to bear; it also cued Ghost to start screaming.


	38. Trap, Ready

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**37. Trap (Ready)**

The sound of a scared little flesh heap screaming got her salivating, and she quickened her steps through the woods. Recognition of the tree formations and the pathways didn't take much memory at all, it only took keen olfactory sense and a bit of half-recollection to go with it. She had those things. What she didn't have was a warm meal, and the sound of screams, it would seem, was drawing her towards one.

She sniffed the air, and from the jumble of smells, managed to distinguish just one... the one that mattered most.

_Her._

She didn't discriminate between prey. Food was food, hunt was hunt and prey was prey, but this one, this particular one, she couldn't forget. Like an old wound aching in the rain, this particular prey, she was eager to devour, so, hungry maw open, teeth glistening with saliva, she roared and ran through the woods towards the sound of screams.


	39. Trap, Closing

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**38. Trap (Closing)**

She lowered the rifle, ready to bring it up again. She didn't want her arm to get tired, as the first shot had to hit. The rest could miss, but the first shot guaranteed a little sluggishness in about five minutes, and she was fairly certain she could survive that long.

Hell, even if she didn't get off scot-free, it wasn't like the lycanthrope could infect her _again _or anything.

The sound of growling and roaring approached fast from the pathway dead ahead of her, and she rose the rifle, approximating the size of the wolf itself, and readied to take the shot.

Ghost was frantic above, she was trying to kick and scream her way loose. She wasn't begging, pleading or anything else, she was simply screaming incoherently. It would do her no good, it would just sharpen the wolf's senses for when it'd leap out and...

The wolf that she guessed once was Brigitte Fitzgerald, its chestnut fur magnificent and jaws one of the best she had ever seen leapt out into the clearing. She took aim, locked onto it, and followed the beast's rhythm.

It didn't even stop, it simply bounced once, twice and leaped straight for Ghost, hungry jaws open. As the teeth sunk into the girl's body, she fired. The first dart found its place, and the Beast tore Ghost free from the ropes with the sheer force of its attack. This also put it out of her line of sight, so she quickly descended the three steps and circled around the stairs.


	40. Trapped

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**39. Trapped**

She took aim at the beast, and stopped. Hesitated. The wolf was single-mindedly tearing a screaming Ghost to shreds, it's focus absolute. With one dart in its body, she expected it to at least take notice of her, but it's primary preoccupation was with shedding Ghost's blood.

She took pity on the girl for a split second, because she knew, nobody deserved to go out like this. Nobody. But it didn't change what Ghost had done, or the current situation.

She fired again, and the second tranq dart buried itself into the fur. The wolf made a slightly annoyed growl, but didn't even stop what it was doing. With teeth scraping and its claws digging into Ghost's flesh, the beast was ravenous. Blood spurted out in every direction, shaking Ghost and quickly diminishing her screams into nothing.

She cocked the rifle, one more in the muzzle. Fired again. Another hit, right next to the second one. That was when the wolf whipped around and leapt towards her, closing in the distance between them in a second. She felt the jaws of the beast close a fraction of an inch above her shoulder as she lost her balance and found herself flat on her back and in the snow. The rifle was still in her hands, but the beast was right on top of her, and she couldn't bring the weapon to bear.

She looked up into the eyes of the wolf and saw the night, terrible and absolute, looking back at her.

She let go of the rifle. It stood, balanced, on her chest and the wolf, not able to make heads or tails of it, simply kept staring. As it bent down to sniff at it and then at her, she slipped both hands into her jacket's pockets.

Thank God, both syringes were still there. She gripped them, turned them upwards and using her thumbs, flicked the caps off of the needles. She only had one shot at this.

The wolf was withdrawing, and she saw that it wasn't really interested. She turned the syringes, put her thumbs on the plungers and crossed her arms.

"See you soon, Brigitte." She said and pushed the needles in.


	41. Catch

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**40. Catch**

The wolf howled and withdrew with a sharp jerk, giving her breathing space. She pulled out the tranq gun from the holster, took aim and fired two darts into the wolf's neck. The beast took it, but didn't go down – it stood there, swaying from side to side, it's burning, yellow eyes fixated on her. She stood there, tranq gun still aimed and ready, waiting for the darts to take effect.

The wolf took a step forward. She took a step back. The wolf advanced one step further, and she retreated, keeping the distance. She expected a third step, and the wolf tried, but the tranquilizers, apparently, were too much for it. It fell to its side, into the snow, and remained still.

She fired another dart, just to make sure. You couldn't be too careful with these things. Sometimes they played possum, and they played that part so convincingly that you didn't realize what was up until it was chewing your arm off.

She retrieved the rifle from where it lay, shook off the snow and checked. Still two darts left. Good. She opened up the trunk and took out the canister that kept the wolfsbane. She kept it in a vial as opposed to a syringe, because needles could break and were a bitch to replace.

She filled a needle with the purple liquid, thick and pure. She returned to the wolf's side, circled around it to come out from its back, just in case. Bent down to its neck and injected.

As the plunger hit rock bottom in the syringe, she breathed a sigh of relief. The hardest part was over.

"It's up to you now." she said, "Brigitte... if you can hear me in there, don't worry. It's over."


	42. Detox

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**41. Detox**

For both the nurse and the patient, the next three days were marked by successive developments. The time-lapse was both lightning-fast and turtle-crawl slow at the same time, and threw both of them off-balance.

For her, it was the anticipation of what she would learn. She spent her time reading Sam's diary, going over his thoughts and events once more, once more and once more just to make sure she hadn't missed anything. She read it, ate whatever she'd packed with her, watched the roads for any sign of cops. Ghost was dead. The beast had disemboweled her thoroughly – it had broken all ribs and had taken special care to tear into her heart. She buried the girl in a shallow grave out back, where she found the long-forgotten remains of some guy. Seemed fitting, as he didn't seem to have a grave at all, either.

For Brigitte, down below the floorboards, the three days passed were a series of excruciating snapshots moving in quick succession, forming the illusion of a time-lapse film. At first it was just a resurfacing of her consciousness, as if she was drowning all this time and was only now allowed to go above water and breathe. But the breath she took went to her head. She spent the entirety of the three days crawling on the floor, scaling the darkness of the basement and feeling her bones crack and shrink, her muscles dissolve and her strength diminish... her teeth were sinking back into her gums, her nails into their beds, and all of it, she felt.

Pain was all she could feel, see, hear, taste, touch and breathe.

And on the fourth day, it all subsided, and Brigitte Fitzgerald found herself curled up and holding her knees... the knees of a human body.


	43. Remission

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**42. Remission**

At first, all Brigitte could do was to lie there, in the dark, and try to adjust. It was a maddening rush of thoughts and emotions that was crippling her, forcing her into inaction. Regret, doubt and fear mixing with memories of Ginger, memories of Sam, memories of Ghost and what she had done and oh God what had she done she had left her there and it was pain and anger and remorse and mercy and hunger and everything, just _everything._

Overwhelmed, she shivered and whimpered at it, trying to keep all of it at bay, but it was useless, as everything just kept coming on.

She remembered a snippet from somewhere, something about cramps, headaches, violent mood swings and aerobic exercise, something about rigorous physical activity. The memory was half-blurred and quarter-gone, but it was still the only clear focal point she had. So Brigitte started by crawling, as she didn't have the strength for anything more aerobic than that. She crawled in one direction until she reached the wall. The wall, a familiar concept, meant this place had boundaries. Meant she could scale it, map it out.

Logic, reason, calculation – weapons. She started to scale the wall, both palms pressed against it, and circled the room a few times. The room had boundaries, yes, it also had a ceiling. Floorboards mostly, some of which had small distances between them, through which, she could see specs of light. Which meant, there was a world up there – which also meant, she was in a 'down here.' If she could be brought to the 'down here' then it made sense that she could go to the 'up there.'

So Brigitte went onto her hands and knees and started to scale the space between the walls, going from one wall to the next, until finally she coincided with the stairs. With shaking arms and wobbly legs, she pushed herself up on her stomach and ascended until she came as close to the source of the light up there as she could. She reached out, and her palms pressed against the ceiling.

She pushed. It wouldn't budge. She pushed harder, as hard as she could, which she guessed wasn't all that hard but had to do. Nothing.

In frustration, she kicked the damn ceiling, made it bounce a little. It didn't calm her down, so she kicked again, again and again.

She was rewinding for another kick when a voice stopped her.

"Brigitte? Is that you in there?"

Brigitte opened her mouth. She had forgotten how to speak, wait, how did it go? Your tongue twisted, jaw moved, vocal chords vibrated and you made noises that somehow made sense. Huh. Cool.

"It's me." She said, "I'm here. Help me?"

"Wait."

Brigitte heard the jangling of keys, the click-clack of a lock opening and then, light from up there flooded her little spot on the stairs.


	44. Surface

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**43. Surface**

Brigitte lifted her arm to shield herself from the light and squinted her eyes. She felt the rush of the cold air on the surface and shivered to it – she was naked and defenseless against it. She covered herself up with her arms, the best she could, and through her hair, looked up at the stranger.

The sight locked her breath in her throat, because for Brigitte, there was no clearer memory jump than a green-eyed, red-headed girl standing tall above her.

"Ginger..?" Brigitte asked, her voice quivering.

"I'm not Ginger." She said, "I'm sorry."

Brigitte's memory leapt out at her and flashed before her eyes a series of images, each one more horrific than the previous, and told her in that split-second what had happened to Ginger. Brigitte got a hold of herself and exhaled.

"It's okay." She said, "Who are you?"

"My name is Amy. Amy McDonald."

"McDonald..?" why did she think that last name familia-wait... "You're relat..." no. Of course she wasn't. It was too much of a stretch. Shit like that didn't just happen.

"Yes, I'm Sam's sister." She said and confirmed that sometimes, shit like that did just happen.

"How..." Brigitte asked, but that wasn't the question, "What..." not it either, "Why..."

"We'll talk, but first, we need to get you clothed."

"You've got clothes?"

"I brought some for you, yes. I don't know your size, so they might not fit all that well. You're a lot thinner than I imagined you'd be."

"Long as I'm not cold." Brigitte said, "I'll take anything."

"Good, so wait here, I'll get the clothes and the gun."

"Gun?"

"Piercing gun."

"Why are you bringing that..?"

"To pierce your ears."

"Why would I pierce my ears?"

"Pure silver, if implemented early, keeps the infection where it is, and given time, can help in clearing it. It keeps the disease from spreading, so yeah, you'll need those."

Amy turned and left. Brigitte stared after her, the weight of her words slowly impacting in her head. _Keeps the infection where it is._

All Brigitte could think about was Ginger, in the kitchen, tearing off her pure silver navel ring and asking if they could cope with shit like that.


	45. Questions

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**44. Questions**

Wearing clothes, wearing actual clothes to her actual, human skin for the first time in God knew how long felt comforting to Brigitte. It was a routine thing, hiding her body from the world outside, disappearing into a mess of clothes; of long skirts, sweaters, jackets and coats. It made it easier to believe she was protected from it, from all the sweat and pulse of it. Having that skin back comforted her some, and she felt that she needed every bit of comfort she could get as Amy methodically prepared the piercing gun.

Brigitte watched her, drank in the details of her. The piercings, numerous for eyebrows, nose, lip, ears, all gleaming and she guessed that they were all pure silver. The way she prepared the gun itself, quickly, with precision, like a professional body mod artist... a natural one.

"Come here."

Brigitte complied and Amy went to her left ear. Without warning, she pulled the trigger and Brigitte felt a new hole open up in her flesh. She winced, but didn't say anything. Amy readied the gun once more, got around to her right ear, and again, a brief yet sharp pain shot through her ear.

"Now, wait."

Amy took off the starter studs in Brigitte's ears and replaced them with two rings from her own ears.

"There, that should do it."

She placed the gun onto the nearby stool and simply stood there. Brigitte waited for an attempt to start a conversation, but when it didn't come, decided to go for it herself.

"I have some questions." She said.

"I know you do. Ask."

"Can I count on you to be honest?"

"Is that the first question?"

"Yes."

"Yes, you can." Amy said, "After all, I went through a lot of trouble to find and cure you."

"Mind if we got out of here?" Brigitte asked, "This house is just... I just wanna be away from here."

"Sure, let's go."

Maybe a little soon, she thought, but still. It wouldn't make a difference.


	46. Passenger

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**45. Passenger**

Brigitte slept through most of the road. Amy didn't expect anything less, the poor girl had spent the better part of a few months as a lycanthrope. Besides, she was fine with the road and the hum of the engine as her companions – Brigitte or not, she would have to make the damn eight hour drive back.

Barely two hours in, the familiar pulling pain resurfaced and crippled her. Her constant companion, the sickness coursing through her veins, demanded her attention to the degree that she could barely pay any attention to anything else. She almost swerved, but regained control and managed to stop the car just off the road. She opened the door, took off her jacket and shivered to the biting cold.

Just a little longer. Just a little longer, and she'd make it.

Brigitte woke up to all motion stopping, but only for a groggy minute or two. Then she fell asleep again. Once she was asleep, Amy took off her belt, wrapped it around her arm and injected herself with the yellow monkshood extract.

Amy then reached for her ears and pulled off two of her pure silver earrings. She dropped them into the snow.


	47. Road Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**46. Road (Redux)**

The headlights illuminated the road, and she, slave to night-road thoughts once more, traversed the distance across the world as she knew it. It was a wonder to her, in that moment, how certain places marked the world that she knew and outside of them, the world either didn't, or might as well not exist at all.

Brigitte slept in the passenger seat and she felt all wired with renewed energy. She kept to the road, and after the first three hours, she pulled up to a gas station to catch some air. She pumped the gas, paid the attendant, and before going back into the car, took off all of her eyebrow piercings and threw them into the night.

She took off from there, and it didn't take long for the pins and needles to appear on her fingertips. Her hands were going numb, and while it wasn't that much of a problem now, she knew it'd be a problem shortly.

It was an hour further down the road that the first sharpened fingernail, almost a talon, showed itself. She counted the hours and figured that the monkshood would last her either another hour or so, or the pain would hit her and she would have to shoot up again.

The pain came first. Then the stop, and the monkshood, an increased dose, and the discarding of two more pure silver earrings. After those, it was back to the road again, and to the thoughts of Brigitte, vulnerable, defenseless... thin little Brigitte with that delicious, delicious neck and succulent face sleeping in the passenger seat...


	48. Answers, I

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**47. Answers, I**

Brigitte woke up well into the final hour of their trip. She scratched her eyes and stared outside, blinking incessantly, trying to focus her vision on anything – it was difficult to see the world as it was now, after spending ample time in the primal, hunt-based vision of the lycanthrope.

"Where are we?" Brigitte asked.

"On the way back to Bailey Downs... almost there, actually."

Brigitte glared at her.

"And why are we going to Bailey Downs?"

"I have to show you something. Something to help you understand."

"Understand what?"

"Your legacy."

"Listen, don't bullshit me. Tell it to me straight, I can take it."

"If you're sure..."

"I'll start simple, then. Who are you?"

"Amy McDonald. I'm Sam's sister. Pleasure to meet you."

Silence.

"Sam had a sister..?"

"I'm surprised he didn't mention me, actually. We've been in regular contact, and one day, not too long since we last spoke, I get a phone call, and... well, you were there."

Brigitte wished she wasn't.

"He seriously didn't tell you about me?"

"We didn't..." knot in her chest, ignore it, go a shade orange, "We didn't talk all that much."

"I'm not surprised, given whatever."

"How did you find me?"

"Sam's diary. He wrote your little 'problem' into it, and it wasn't hard to guess how he died, after that."

Brigitte sighed. Sam kept a diary? The more she learned, the more she learned that she didn't know the first thing about Sam, not really.

"So... I'm sure you're curious about what I did to you." Amy said.

"Yes."

"Wolfsbane."

"Can you be more specific?"

"Northern Blue Wolfsbane and Yellow Monkshood, when combined, make a great antibiotic for the curse."

"I already tried that. Why didn't monkshood work?"

"_Aconitum napellus? _Or, as Sam's diary says, _aconitum lycoctonum?_ Retardants at best, but don't stop it. In fact, not even my combination stops it. Nothing stops it."


	49. Answers, II

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**48. Answers, II**

"How am I here if there is no cure?"

"There is no cure _if_ you're still partially human. The cure needs a lycanthrope metabolism and a lycanthrope anatomy to work. It doesn't work if you haven't fully transformed."

"I guess that makes sense... so what's the cure?"

"You do know that the _aconitum_ genus has more than two hundred species, right?"

Brigitte only remembered a likewise comment from Sam once.

"Yeah... sort of." She said, instead.

"The only known cure is the Southern Blue Monkshood, _aconitum uncinatum._ It's often overlooked when it comes to lycanthrope treatments. Everybody goes for the name."

"I guess we did, too... but the monkshood wasn't going to cut it, anyway."

"It can work," Amy said, while taking off two more of her earrings, ", but there's a limit to how much it can do. I'm sorry."

Brigitte considered it. Having no choice in the matter took on a whole new meaning with this piece of information, but there was nothing she could do about any of it now. At least, she thought, Ginger was beyond saving, and it wasn't her failure.

"How did you find me?"

"It's easy to trace you to the Happier Times Care Center. I was going to check out where you went anyway, but then this little girl came along and..."

"Ghost." Brigitte's spite became apparent in her hand curling into a fist, which Amy noted with some amusement. Through clenched teeth, Brigitte asked, "What happened to her?"

"She was my live bait to lure you in. You disemboweled her."

Brigitte's fist relaxed and her face was drained of all anger.

"I figured she had either led to your transformation," Amy said, taking off the final two of her earrings, ",or had allowed it, or something. That's inexcusable. Besides, you were already hunting her down when I found her. I needed a lure, and she agreed to it."

Brigitte looked daggers at her, but not for long. She turned away, turned inwards. This wasn't what she wanted, this never was what she wanted, but every time, it came to this. Somebody's life for hers, and for who, exactly? For someone who once had a pact to kill herself, come sixteen. For someone who had once placed no value in life...


	50. Answers, III

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**49. Answers, III**

The world outside of the passenger seat window started to look a lot more familiar further into the conversation, but all Brigitte can focus on is the addition of another name into the long list of people who died for her, or because of her. Having spent most of her life pining over death, she felt strangely guilty for having brought it to other people in her stead.

"I never wanted anyone to die for me." She said.

"Sam?"

"I should have listened to him..." Brigitte said, "He said, how about you take the cure and we blow. I wanted to save Ginger, I had to know that I had done everything, and... it's my fault now."

A moment of silence.

"About that," Amy said, "Do you want to know the origin of the curse?"

"What?"

"Oh, you'll love this one."


	51. Origin

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**50. Origin**

"Stop me if you've heard this one," Amy said as she took off one of her eyebrow rings, "1809, a group of expeditionists working for the Northern Trading Company go to the then-furthest reaches of Ontario and base themselves in a fort, Fort Bailey. They got regular provisions from the company to bear through winters, but in 1815, that delivery was never made."

Brigitte listened as Amy steered the car, gently, in the direction of Bailey Downs.

"Fort Bailey was then destroyed in a fire, and most of the records contained therein, regarding the fire and whatever, were lost. What was recovered amount to nothing more than the diary of the company representative, which was partially burned, and some local Native legends, transcribed by this same man, Wallace Rowlands, kept in his safe."

Brigitte rose an eyebrow at the name. She remembered police commissioner Wallace Rowlands from the police station on Leland Street...

"Go on."

"Well, the legend tells about The Red and the Black, sisters bound in blood, who have a chance to make or break a curse. This corresponds to the diary, which has entries about two sisters arriving at Fort Bailey before it burned to the ground."

Brigitte felt an urge to laugh. It was beyond ridiculous, the implications she was deriving from this. _Maybe the wolfsbane drove me crazy,_ she thought. _Maybe I lost it._

"I'll put aside the fact that the sisters' recorded names were Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald for now," Amy said, taking off another ring and watching as Brigitte's eyes widened in shock, "I'll fast-forward it for you. It's 1913, a year after Ontario reached its final boundaries. A real estate and construction company decides to build a town around the remains of the fort – a settlement on what once was the edge of existence. It's named after the fort, too. Bailey Downs. And during the construction, a pair of sisters, recorded to have been attacked by wolves, arrive."


	52. Emergence

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**51. Emergence**

Brigitte could only stare at her, her blank gaze betraying the emergent notions that were slowly starting to slither into a writhing, hulking mess of odd thoughts and stray emotions. It was pure shock, knotted up in her head, pulling on the strings she had kept wound tight to survive, to break through, to succeed, to beat the odds... and for what? For fucking what?

"I never had a chance..." she said, her fingers curled into a fist and she felt the nails dig into her palms, "...did I?"

"I'm sorry." Amy said.

Brigitte laughed.

"You're sorry? What _for?_ I did everything I could do save her, I did everything I could to escape the curse and now, you're telling me that I never had a choice, and you're sorry?"

"Yes."

Brigitte clenched her teeth. The words rolling on her tongue were pure poison and she'd have to swallow them anyway. Her entire being had just collapsed on the notion of never having had any chance, or even a choice at all in any of this.

Instead, Brigitte channeled it into a question.

"So, what now?"

"There's something you need to understand, back in Bailey Downs. I'm taking you there."

_Nobody escapes the pull of a well-lit black hole, _Brigitte thought.


	53. Home Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**52. Home (Redux)**

Home felt a little more detached, a little more indifferently distant than Brigitte remembered. Something about seeing these white picket fences, angled rooftops and red-brick buildings reminded her of the blind, naked remission period she spent in Ghost's basement – neither here, nor there.

As they passed through the streets she knew better than the palm of her hand, she witnessed the peaceful rest of the suburbs... and it sickened her. All these people, oblivious to what is lurking right out their doorsteps, never even knowing that home offered no shelter, no closure, no truth... their myopic, bullshit existence, sleeping soundly, ignorantly.

_Ginger was right_, Brigitte felt, _Ginger was right all along._

Brigitte was so fixated on this one thought, the thought of Ginger to pull her through, that she didn't realize the sharp, long fingernails of her driver.


	54. House Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**53. House (Redux)**

Amy pulled up in front of the greenhouse, stopped and turned off the engine. She opened the door, stepped out, and immediately began taking off the rest of her earrings. It'd be too difficult once these fingernails became actual talons, so better to do it now than later.

While she did it, she took a look at the greenhouse. It hadn't changed since the last time she'd been there. She was expecting, perhaps, her passage to leave a mark, more than the sagging remains of the yellow police tape, perhaps.

She took a look over her shoulder. Brigitte was frozen where she sat, staring at the greenhouse. Amy sensed that this place meant more to the poor girl than she might have guessed.

There. The last of her earrings. Now to take off the others... a sudden pain churned in her gut and Amy keeled over. She clenched her teeth and breathed hard. No. Not just yet. Just a little longer, just a little while... almost there. They were almost home.


	55. Buried Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**54. Buried (Redux)**

Brigitte couldn't move a muscle. The dull throb of her new earrings told her all she needed to know, that this was not a dream or a fantasy – she actually was in a place she always wished she had spent more time in.

Sam. Warm thought, too warm, too close, was choking her with this sight. This was him. This was his home. This was, more or less, _their _home, Brigitte thought, as she had two of those, and one was made entirely of him.

_Sam._

Brigitte searched for him. She used to see him, before Ginger's ghost had taken over, before Ginger, once again, had become all she could see. Was he there?

No. Nobody.

"You okay?" Amy's voice asked.

Brigitte shook her head.

"But that's alright." She added.

It wasn't.

"Come on, I'll show you something." Amy said, as this was what she felt Brigitte should see, "I'll take you to the family crypt."


	56. Graveyard Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**55. Graveyard (Redux)**

Amy retrieved a few things from the trunk and put them in a duffel bag. Then, she lead the way into the greenhouse. For Brigitte, every step she took was full of malignant meaning as she treaded familiar ground that had since lost its familiarity. Nothing was as she remembered, not even the basic smell of it.

There was no warmth left in the greenhouse and it's silence was that of a graveyard.

Amy stopped sometime in the middle of the road. She passed the duffel bag to Brigitte. It had to be now. Her fingers, slightly longer than they used to be, gave her trouble with the clasp of her navel piercing.

She decided to rip it right out of her flesh. Who would cope with shit like this, any way?

Behind her, Brigitte was silent like a ghost. Amy pressed on.

Her gut was churning.


	57. Crypt Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**56. Crypt (Redux)**

Brigitte followed Amy through a hallway she had never gone down before, one that, she could see, lead to the outside. What was out back? They walked up a hill and came to an opening marked by a low fence.

Brigitte saw three tombstones in a row, the latest one, reading **SAM McDONALD** showing how new it was through the absence of cracks. Brigitte looked at the other names. **KRIS McDONALD **and **KATHERINE McDONALD**.

"These are..?"

"My parents... and my brother."

Brigitte reached for Sam's headstone. Her fingers made contact with the marble and she shivered as she ran her hand along the top of it. He was just like this now, dead and cold.

_This is death_, she saw, _a name and a slab of marble, and nobody gives a fuck. Worm-food in a couple of years. This is death – useless... needless..._

"I'm sorry, Sam..."

"Don't be." Amy said, "It was inevitable. It's the curse."

"What?"

"Sam and I lost our parents to a lycanthrope pack." Amy said, "We both got bitten, but for some reason, they let us live. He was too young, his immune system was still developing. When I realized what was happening, I did what I saw in old movies – silver. With him, it'd keep the infection at bay until he could metabolize the virus altogether. For me... well, let's just say, I kept adding silver, but it only slowed it down."

"I know that part."

"Sure ya d..." something caught in her throat. It was time.


	58. Contamination Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**57. Contamination (Redux)**

"Amy, are you okay?

"I went to such lengths, you know?" her voice quivered slightly, "Read what I could. Did what I could... but nothing helped! Nothing!"

"Amy, calm down."

"I asked myself, why me, you know?" Amy said as she took off one of her lip rings, one of the final three that she had on, "What did I do? What did _I_ do?"

"Amy, your fingers..."

"I don't have te- oh, there they are."

Amy smiled, revealing elongated incisors and making Brigitte's blood run cold.

"Brigitte... you need to do something for me... I'm... infected."

"I can see that!"

"I need you to... cure me... I have all you need here... with me..."

"Why me?"

"You're... a survivor... you can relate... you can understand... the curse it... it took my brother... don't let it... aagh!"

A spasm wracked her body, but Amy held on.

"Fuck... _fuck!_"

"My things are... in that bag_... Brigitte... __**GO!**_"

Brigitte turned and ran to the door leading to the main area of the greenhouse. She turned around and caught a glimpse of Amy keeling over, onto her newly-found claws. Brigitte shut the door behind her, and ran.


	59. Outbreak Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**58. Outbreak (Redux)**

Every muscle and sinew throbbed with the sharpest pain imaginable as Amy felt her spine elongating. Her clothes started to stretch to ripping point and then were slowly torn, making way to the new mass of muscle, murder and impulse. She felt her cheekbones crack as her mouth elongated into a muzzle – her gums screamed out as they enlarged and made way, agonizingly slowly, to fangs.

Her skin split on her back and she screamed, her voice growing deeper and deeper every passing second, and her sense of smell shot through the roof. She could smell different things, the old wood, the moist air, the dried up flowers and their lingering fragrances but most of all she could smell fear and that got her saliva flowing.

Her belly was aching and the wolf knew, there was only one way to take care of that.


	60. Necessities Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**59. Necessities (Redux)**

With the bare necessity of safety from lycanthropes quickly becoming a faraway luxury, Brigitte ran through the doorways, taking only the second-fragments required to shut each one behind her/. She didn't stop until she pushed open the door she had once brought Ginger out of.

The duffel bag was still in her hands. She crouched, put it on the snow and opened it. She found a metal box. She took it and opened it up.

What she guessed was _aconitum uncinatum _extract, in a vial. There was a syringe next to it. The cure. With shaking hands, Brigitte quickly took the syringe and filled it up. She had the cure ready.

The bag also held two syringes, one filled with yellow and the other with blue. The dual extract she was talking about earlier. Brigitte passed.

A howl echoed from inside the greenhouse, prompting Brigitte to take the hunting knife out of its resting place and hold it tightly.

She stood, as she had stood quite some time ago, with a syringe in one hand and the final solution in the other.


	61. Preparation Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**60. Preparation (Redux)**

The howl, more guttural, more primal this time, started to grow louder.

**Don't you just love the sound of nature?**

"I'm sorry, Ginge."

**Pfft. What for?**

"I couldn't save you."

Brigitte felt the briefest of touches on her ear, but it might have been the cold.

**Don't worry, B. Sisters, we forgive.**

"I miss you."

**Together forever, that was a promise. So you see, I'm always with you.**

The howl, more urgent, more demanding, getting closer, growing louder. Brigitte was just standing there, knife in one hand, syringe in the other. What was she going to do when it came out? Use the syringe?

Or just use the knife?

_Understand you may kill her trying to save her was what I said. It still holds true._

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Sam..."

She felt a brief brush of lips on her temple, or was it the wind?

_It wasn't your fault._

"Don't go."

_You take me with you to wherever you go. I'm always with you._

A moment of silence, where the world stood still and everything came to a halt. Brigitte could feel her heart stop beating for one second.

_She's coming._

**What're you gonna do?**

"I'll put an end to this."

The lycanthrope crashed through the door and drew a graceful arc in the air before landing on all fours in front of Brigitte, who felt that she was as prepared as she had ever been, and just as content.


	62. Patients Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**61. Patients (Redux)**

Brigitte circle-strafed slowly, following the wolf, which was doing the same. The beast of pure muscle and mayhem held its head forward, and swayed slightly with each step, as if sizing her up. The moment lingered and Brigitte knew that it expected a reaction out of her.

She held out the syringe, displayed it for the beast to see. The wolf took notice of it, cocked its head sideways slightly.

"You want this?" Brigitte asked in the manner of talking to a dog, "You want this?"

The wolf turned its attention back to her. Its jaws parted, revealing the hungry maw of the beast that had never quite stopped hunting her. The wolf snarled and filled Brigitte with utmost hatred for its very existence. This thing had taken her sister from her, it had taken her only friend, it had taken everything... and now what? Was she going to offer the cure so readily to the embodiment of what had ended her life?

"Who the fuck am I kidding..?" Brigitte said, "You never want this. None of you ever want this... I was the only one."

The beast growled, a rumbling from within its belly scattered into the air. It took position, balancing itself on its hind legs. Realizing what was about to happen, Brigitte threw the syringe away and brandished the hunting knife.

The wolf pounced.


	63. Detox Redux

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**62. Detox (Redux)**

Brigitte saw the move a second before it occurred and side-stepped. The beast brushed past her and landed onto the snow. Brigitte moved quickly, two steps forward, one to the side and then leapt forward, bringing the knife to bear. Her blow found purchase and she felt it sink in to the hilt.

The beast buckled, but Brigitte had a firm grip on the knife. She tried to pull, eliciting an agonized growl from the flailing lycanthrope. It tried to turn and bite, Brigitte felts its jaws snap inches from her flesh.

"No, you _don't!_ _I'm not dying here with you!_"

Brigitte put one foot on the beast and pulled, but the knife turned unexpectedly, and tore open a large gash in the wolf's side. Blood spurted out of the wound and onto her. Half-blind, Brigitte stumbled backwards, and finally fell.

The wolf made a desperate thrust forwards as Brigitte, almost panicking, scurried to her feet. Once she had, she circled right back and brought the knife around. She moved forward and plunged it into the beast's hide. And again. And again.

Brigitte screamed as she tore at the now-long-dead wolf with the knife, cursing out every single moment that had brought her there. After a few more stabs, her resolve broke and Brigitte was left alone in the night, crying. Her sobs and howls scattered through the woods and into the darkness of Bailey Downs.


	64. An Epilogue, Out by Sixteen

"_**Ginger Snaps 4: Heavenless"**_

**An Epilogue  
****(Out by Sixteen)  
****(Wolfsmond Above)**

_And at the end of it all she did nothing but leave me to pick up the pieces, again. There was nothing left of her in the monster that I killed, but she would have known that. I realized then that it wasn't her intent to be cured, despite what she had said. She would have guessed that I would want to survive, just like I knew, she wanted to die._

_I was her suicide._

_And with that, everything that happened to Ginger, that happened to me, became a part of me._

_I took her car. I thought she wouldn't mind. I drove down the familiar streets of Bailey Downs, where I had spent most of my life and felt nothing. This place was always like a well-lit black hole, and I couldn't feel something for that now. It was too late._

_I drove out of Bailey Downs, and that was me, out by sixteen._

_I thought a lot about what she meant. About the Curse. About my legacy, about the legacy I am a part of. So once I found a suitable place to settle for a few days, I went through her notes and I found what she was talking about._

_She had a picture of her grandpapa, the McDonald that was present during the incident in 1913 – the company all buried all records of it, hoping it wouldn't scare off potential investors, but that didn't keep the family from acquiring a few personal effects._

_And no matter how I look at the picture, no matter how I try to put it, it's Sam. It's Sam in period clothing. I keep it with me, because it is all I have left of the only friend I have ever known. Only friend and possibly more – but no matter how hard I wish and how many times I dream it different, we will have nothing but those few days at the greenhouse, and conversations about monkshood._

_We had our chance, and it was ended by the same thing that gave us that chance – sooner or later, the wolf devours us all._

_I keep the photograph with me. Sometimes, when I'm tired or really lonely, I can still feel him, close by, watching over me. At other times, when I'm in doubt, I feel Ginger nearby, with that wicked smile on her face. Their ghosts are all I have left, and I know ghosts aren't real, but sometimes I pretend that they are._

_I will be with both of them, always - and I am content in knowing that this wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. I am hoping to get it right someday, to get everything right and save Ginger. Save Sam. Maybe even save myself._

_But for now, it's just the long night road to somewhere I don't even know and t__he full moon has risen above._


End file.
